Koponen, Team Finland advance to Eurobasket top 12

Another update from our friend Hippo!

It’s been 16 years since Team Finland last played in Eurobasket and 34 years since their last Eurobasket victory, but on Monday night, "Wolf Pack" fought their way into Eurobasket top 12 for the first time in 44 years. The team was lead by 2007 NBA first round draft pick Petteri Koponen, whose rights were traded to Dallas Mavericks in June 2011.

In five games so far, Finland has won Bosnia-Herzegovina (92-64) and Montenegro (71-65), suffered heartbreaker defeats to Croatia (79-84) and Macedonia (70-72), and got whopped by Greece (61-81). During next week, Finland will face Russia, Slovenia and Georgia and try to earn enough victories to make it to the top 8.

Petteri Koponen has started all five games for team Finland. Here’s a statistical recap of Koponen’s performance for all Mavs fans:

Games: 5

Minutes: 30,8 (#20 in Eurobasket so far)

Points: 14,0 (#20 in Eurobasket so far)

Rebounds: 2,2

Assists: 3,4

Steals: 0,4

Turnovers: 2,4

2pt field goals: 35,0%

3pt field goals: 45,0%

Free throws: 83,3% (#20 in Eurobasket so far)

Statistic-wise, Koponen’s best tournament game so far was against Greece, when he drained 21 points, grabbed 3 rebounds and dished 3 assists against another Mavericks hopeful, Nick Calathes.